Musicians Line Up In Opposition To Wyden’s Royalty Bill — “Music industry professionals are lobbying Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., to stand down and allow a bill updating music rights laws to pass. Musicians and industry groups have worked for years to update how music royalties are paid in the digital era. The resulting Music Modernization Act passed the House unanimously in May.”

Taking Common-Law Copyright for Pre-1972 Sound Recordings Seriously — Zvi Rosen discusses his recently published and highly recommended article on “Common-Law Copyright.” Rosen writes, “[W]e’ve really failed to think through the doctrinal consequences of using common-law copyright to protect older sound recordings, or even really what common-law copyright is. In my article I believe I document pretty clearly just how different common-law copyright is from statutory copyright, and how we’ve fairly to take it seriously as a doctrine and ended up with a muddle of unpredictability and confusion.”

Brexit and Copyright: An Update on the Road to D-Day — Hugh Stephens takes a look at what changes Britain can expect to copyright law in that country should it leave the European Union. “In the area of copyright, these impacts–while not negligible–are relatively minor compared to some of the adjustments that other sectors of the economy will have to face.”

CJEU rules that unauthorized re-posting of protected content may be an infringement — A summary of the opinion from the Court of Justice of the European Union, which was asked, “Does the inclusion of a work — which is freely accessible to all internet users on a third-party website with the consent of the copyright holder — on a person’s own publicly accessible website constitute a making available of that work to the public within the meaning of Article 3(1) of [Directive 2001/29] if the work is first copied onto a server and is uploaded from there to that person’s own website?” The CJEU answered yes.

About

Copyhype provides news and info on current developments relating to copyright law, the media industries, and the digital economy. It cuts through the hype to bring reasoned discussion aimed at both legal and nonlegal audiences.

Terry Hart is currently VP Legal Policy and Copyright Counsel at the Copyright Alliance. Any opinions expressed on this site remain his own and not necessarily those of his present or any past employers.